Penalties and power play opportunities have increased significantly. With the Leafs penalty kill falling into that familiar territory at the bottom, sitting 27th with a 71.9% rate, I wanted to look closer at what kinds of penalties were being called.

Needless to say, the far and away penalty called is five for fighting, where the Leafs rank tied for second overall in the NHL.

This first graph breaks down the Leafs penalty by position. Of note, not one high sticking penalty - one of four teams (TB, EDM, TOR, NSH).

One stat that wasn’t amassed was called twice on Mikhail Grabovski, Grbovski - Delay of Game - faceoff violation. Tyler Bozak was called for Delay of Game – puck over glass.

Note*** I amassed these stats from CBSsports.com which didn’t differentiate between delay of game penalties.

Note the interference and boarding calls.

This is the breakdown by forwards, a splatter of different penalty calls, except for one type, dominated by two players, fighting majors.

My views around fighting are fairly inconsequential. Realizing the issue is polarizing amongst fans and I don’t have any heavy feelings either way except that staged fights don’t provide any personal enjoyment. I don’t see the point.

I feel having a weapon in your hand in the form of the stick is empowering even at a basic biological level and sometimes, players cross the line. I can see fighting being phased out at some point.

My only question in that regard? What value does Colton Orr and to an extent Mike Brown add to the lineup?

Players

Fight Maj

Int

Trip

Board

Hook

GlInt

Unsp

Slash

Hold

Rough

Misc

Jay McClement

1

Leo Komarov

2

Mikhail Grabovski

1

1

Nazem Kadri

1

1

1

Clarke MacArthur

1

Frazer McLaren

1

James van Riemsdyk

1

1

1

Colton Orr

3

Matt Frattin

1

Mike Brown

3

1

1

Phil Kessel

1

1

1

I find this to be more coincidental, but check out the team leaders in fighting majors.

Turning our attention over to the defensemen, Mike Kostka has three tripping and a couple of interference calls. I wanted to verify whether these were related to pace of the NHL, something I think he’s struggled with in his baptism by fire. I don’t think that’s a proper conclusion after going back to watch the penalties. They may have been careless, but nothing out of the ordinary that wouldn’t have occurred to a mainstay NHL defenseman.

Korbinian Holzer’s tripping call came right after the tripping call on Kostka, taking out ex-Leaf Jiri Tlusty on a rush through the neutral zone.

The Leafs are also tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins in boarding calls. Dallas and Tampa Bay have four boarding calls, all from four individual players. Both leaders boast a player with two calls each, Chris Kunitz for the Penguins and Leo Komarov for the Leafs.

Last season, Toronto had 10 boarding calls, six by defensemen (T-2nd most by position), Dion Phaneuf and Cody Franson with one each, Luke Schenn and Mark Fraser each had two. Fraser is continuing the tradition with one boarding call already.

Players

TOR

PIT

DAL

TB

VAN

CLB

Aaron Volpatti

1

B.J. Crombeen

1

Brandon Dubinsky

1

Brian Lee

1

Chris Kunitz

2

Chris Tanev

1

Cory Conacher

1

Derek MacKenzie

1

Eric Nystrom

1

Henrik Sedin

1

Jack Johnson

1

Jamie Benn

1

Kris Letang

1

Leo Komarov

2

Mark Fraser

1

Michael Ryder

1

Mike Brown

1

Nazem Kadri

1

Pascal Dupuis

1

Philip Larsen

1

Ryan Malone

1

Zach Boychuk

1

Total

5

5

4

4

3

3

Detroit with 12 interference calls to lead so far in 2013 is in the running to lead the NHL two straight seasons. They had an NHL high 53 in 2011-12.

The Leafs had 27 in 2011-12, landing somewhere in the middle of the pack at 18th. The eight penalty calls has them in a five-way tie for third overall. The trend is fairly clear, defensemen are getting the most interference calls so far.

Gus Katsaros is the Pro Scouting Coordinator for McKeen's Hockey. Follow him on twitter @KatsHockey or his blog Kats Krunch at mckeenshockey.com